


Suited for Summer

by Nicxan



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Gen, Not Beta Read, The perils of being an owner tbh .... sometimes u gotta fill in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-24 03:27:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20351623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicxan/pseuds/Nicxan
Summary: William was already less than overjoyed to be away from home to do checks on other locations. It wasn't the best time to be in Tennessee.... But he was even less than thrilled when one location plans poorly and begs him to step into a mascot suit on short notice.





	Suited for Summer

**Author's Note:**

> Writer's Month! Day 22! Prompt is 'summer!'   
No, I don't know humidity like the back of my sweating palm why do you ask

Quite frankly, William couldn’t wait to get back home. Summer itself was already bad enough, but having to check a location in Tennessee with this humidity? Unbearable.   
  
What was equally unbearable was the fact that their performer had apparently called out due to a broken leg, and he had to don the goddamn rabbit suit for the first time in months. The manager had begged and pleaded him, saying that no one else could fit in the Spring Bonnie costume.   
  
Upon examining the suit and seeing that it was a back up one, not a springlock one, William reluctantly agreed. He donned the costume, immediately regretted it, and stepped outside to a small horde of excited children.   
  
He was burning alive from the first second out there. He could feel the sweat cling to the suit, feel it drip down his face, and it made it somewhat difficult to see. But, everything had a small blessing – the screams and shouts of those damn kids were muffled. It was tolerable for that reason alone.   
  
He heard a couple of employees snickering as they passed, and knew that they would have to deal with a very irritated owner later. He would make those wash the suit out of spite. That also made this whole ordeal just a bit more bearable.   
  
Besides, he knew what to do. He had it down to an art. Whoever called out should have hobbled in on his broken leg to take some notes. What a wasted opportunity to learn from the best.  
  
William crouched down, listened to the children’s excited ramblings, nodded along to whatever nonsense they were spewing, did a stupid dance or two … and much to his surprise, he found himself having the slightest bit of fun. Not that he would ever admit that.   
  
Nor would he admit that a couple of the children actually made him feel just a bit homesick.  
  
One of the children reminded him so much of Elizabeth. She had been the inquisitive one here, always asking questions and giggling excitedly when he either nodded or shook his head. Her hair was bright red, just like Elizabeth, too.  
  
"Aren't you s'posed to have Fredbear with you? Where is he? Why do you have a vest? What's it like being a bunny?" The questions came out faster than he could answer the last, but he did his best. He nodded, shrugged, played with his vest and just gave a thumbs up (hoping she'd understand that Spring Bonnie just liked it), and much to his shame, did a bit of an excited hop just to show that being a rabbit was great.   
  
The overjoyed laughter he got from her almost made all of that nonsense worth it.  
  
Another child reminded him of Michael. He pretended to not care, scoffing and muttering things under his breath that William was sure was impolite. He stuck around anyway, and William swore he heard the kid laughing when he danced.   
  
"You're really a person under there," the older boy grumbled while rolling his eyes. "I'm not stupid." When he had said this, it took everything William had to not condescendingly pat him on the head. 'You sure aren't', that would've said. Instead, he managed to barely stay in character and shake his head quickly. That didn't even come close to satisfying this kid.   
  
Go figure.  
  
The others were non-entities, in his opinion. He would forget about them tomorrow. Those two got just a bit more of his attention – and before he knew it, he had to bow out before having a heat stroke in the damn suit. William took his leave, rushing to the back room. The store manager was there to help him out of the suit.   
  
Though, said manager did recoil at the pool of sweat that almost spilled out while getting the costume off. He did the professional thing and ignored it otherwise.  
  
“Thank you so much,” the store manager said as he set the head down. “We owe you one.”  
  
“You do,” William replied simply. He began to peel the suit’s arms off of himself, then snatched the water bottle off of the table. The bottle was emptied quickly. “Who’s the one with black hair?”   
  
“Um … Jenny.”  
  
“She’s washing the suit. If she thinks she can snicker at someone working hard, then she can suffer the consequences for it.”   
  
The manager hesitated, then just nodded in resigned agreement.   
  
“Don’t think you’ve escaped me watching how you run things, either,” William continued. Fuck, the suit stuck to his pants. He would have to wash these tonight. God damn it all. “I already don’t like that you didn’t have a backup for a performer who had to call out. Being unprepared like that is going to make things worse for you. You won’t always have me here.”  
  
“Yes, Mr. Afton,” he muttered. William could hear shame a mile away, and it was palpable here.   
  
“I’ll see you tomorrow, then. Remember – Jenny cleans the suit. Get someone else to perform tomorrow. I’m not doing that again in this humidity.”   
  
With that, William was out the door.   
  
God damn, he really couldn’t wait to be home. His location was run like a well-oiled machine, and … well, he did miss his kids. He thought about the two from earlier as he started the car. He’d have to tell Elizabeth and Michael about them.  
  
Once he made sure no one was looking, he let himself smile.


End file.
